FBI agents Thursday raided the offices where the Cook County government keeps its hiring records.

FBI spokeswoman Cynthia Yates would not say what the investigation was about.

However, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s patronage chief and four other former city officials are awaiting sentencing for a scheme to subvert a ban on patronage hiring, or doling out jobs according to applicants’ political connections. Daley has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Chinta Strausberg, a spokeswoman for acting Cook County Board President Bobbie Steele, said only: “We are fully cooperating with the investigation.”

Chicago Alderman Todd Stroger, who is running to replace his father, John Stroger, as Cook County Board president, said he believes the raid was connected to an activist’s request that a federal monitor oversee county hiring to prevent abuses.

Stroger’s Republican opponent, Anthony Peraica, said the raid stemmed from a “criminal conspiracy to deny the rights of well-qualified persons and applicants jobs that were instead given to the politically connected.”

“Test scores were rigged, applications were falsified in order to allow hiring of clearly unqualified individuals, some with criminal histories,” Peraica said.

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